It has been 10 years since Lanny Frattare, the longest-tenured announcer in franchise history, has broadcast a Pirates game.
Frattare stepped away from the booth after the 2008 season without fanfare. There was no Lanny Frattare Day or any other ceremony as the Pirates quietly made the announcement in a press release.
While Frattare certainly has plenty of good memories from his 33-year run that began in 1976, he doesn't spend much time looking back. He has too much going on in his life to reminisce.
Now 70, though he looks considerably younger, Frattare is a professor of sports broadcasting at Waynesburg University. He also does radio and internet play-by-play for the Trib High School Sports Network.
"I would probably miss it if I didn't have Waynesburg and the opportunity to still put the headsets on," Frattare told DKPittsburghSports.com. "I'm very happy with my life. It's very rewarding, very fulfilling."
Frattare received the Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night at the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh's Chuck Tanner Awards Banquet at The Rivers Club in One Oxford Centre. Jim Leyland presented the award to Frattare. The former Pirates manager's son, Patrick, is Frattare's godchild.
By 2008, Frattare had grown weary of the travel associated with broadcasting Major League Baseball. Yet he exited the booth without any future plans.
Like many job seekers, Frattare read the classified ads in the local newspapers looking for opportunities. He found two that intrigued him, the athletic director's opening at Upper St. Clair High School and the teaching job at Waynesburg. Frattare's children both graduated from Upper St. Clair, and he remains close friends with Jim Render, the school's legendary football coach.
It wasn't long after he stepped down that Waynesburg called, and Frattare realized he had found his calling for the second phase of his professional life.
"I love teaching, helping students learn the art of broadcasting, helping them gain experience, helping them understand how difficult finding a job in the field can be and how you have to start at the bottom and work your way up," Frattare said. "Nothing, though, tops seeing one of the students get their first broadcasting job and fulfill their dream."
Frattare began broadcasting scholastic sports for what was then the MSA Network in 2009. He also fills in on approximately five men's basketball games a season on the West Virginia University radio network, calls the West Virginia state high school baseball championships in Charleston each spring on cable television and does the PONY League World Series for WJPA-AM 1450 in Washington, Pa. every August.
Most announcers of Frattare's pedigree wouldn't take a step back to do high school games. However, as Frattare says, he "loves putting the headsets on."
"I really enjoy it," Frattare said. "My love has always been calling games. It doesn't matter to me what level it is. I have a lot of fun with it."
Though he last managed the Pirates in 1996, Leyland and Frattare remain close friends. In fact, Frattare said his relationship with Leyland is the greatest memory of his more than three decades with the franchise.
"Very rarely does a major league manager and a broadcaster develop a relationship like we had," Frattare said. "I didn't really know Jim when he came to Pittsburgh (in 1986), but we hit it off almost immediately. He would confide so many things with me. Some I could use as background on the air, and other things I couldn't. Our relationship continues to this day.
"I think so much of Jim and I learned a lot from him. I use some of the things he did as a manager, as far as teaching and building relationships with players, today at Waynesburg."
Frattare gave an emotional speech Saturday night, talking about his late parents, siblings, two children and three grandchildren. He was clearly touched to be remembered after being out of the major league spotlight for a decade.
"My dream was always to be elected to the broadcasters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown," Frattare said, referring to the annual Ford C. Frick Award. "That's not going to happen. But this is my Hall of Fame, and I couldn't be prouder."
